[music playing] [bell ringing] [music playing] [music playing] with the heart of warriors together were victorious together we are all [drums beating] together we are voirous yeah announcer ladies and gentlemen mayor breed i just figured everybody would be at work and it would be a couple of us today. But i see the cole Valley Community came out. Thank you so much for being here today at wooden, one of the newest establishments right here in the cole Valley Community. This is an amazing neighborhood. So many great places like reverie and the ice cream bar and zazie. This is an incredible place to enjoy the day. Theres wine that you can buy. There is a postal service. There is hardware. Anything that you want is located in this community. Its one of the bestkept secrets in San Francisco. I know that because i come out here and hide a lot. [ laughter ]. Mayor breed but of course the community, they recognize me because i served as a supervisor and one of the things that we know happens sometimes with our Small Businesses, they get caught up in the bureaucracy, when all they want to do is provide a service to the community. This is a neighborhood where people know one another, where they walk down the street and see one another, where they hang out in places like this to enjoy each others company. Where we have watched kids grow up in this neighborhood. The fact that Small Businesses which oftentimes are run by the owners of the Small Businesses, the fact that they have to deal with so much bureaucracy makes me crazy. One of the things i have said we need to do time and time again is can you tell the bureaucratic red tape that gets in the way of allowing our Small Businesses to just exist and be enjoyable for communities like cole valley. [ applause ]. Mayor breed so id like to use this as an example, and let me pause for a minute and recognize captain bailey and the folks from park Police Station and the people who keep our community safe. We really appreciate you. [ applause ]. Mayor breed but when i was supervisor, val, you remember this, free gold watch. You all know that, the pinball machines in that place. So free gold watch, an incredible place. There were pinball machine tournaments, there were activities, a place where the Community Came together. Well, unfortunately it discovered after they opened that they were basically not in compliance with the law. Years ago in the 1980s when we thought that video games were going to destroy young people, destroy civilization as we know it, all these laws were created that limited the ability to have these arcade locations within the certain area of the school or a park or gas station and all this craziness. I just couldnt believe it that we could potentially lose this amazing institution because of some dated laws. Of course, its not just about creating new laws, but about fixing the old laws that put us in this situation in the first place. We got rid of that. Free gold watch and all these other amazing places are open to bring back our childhood for most of us who lived through that time. This is no exception, where i think you just if you just wanted to basically have music and sell a little bit of wine and beer for a comedy night. What he had to go through has been crazy because of some laws that were passed that impact neighboring communities which is sometimes unfair. What we are doing today is making it easier for Small Businesses to provide what i think is a basic community service. Of course, when youre watching comedy, you have to have wine or beer or some kind of beverage in your hand to just enjoy it. Because most of the comics sometimes arent even funny. [ laughter ]. Mayor breed so here we are. Trying to make it easier for our Small Business community and sign this legislation. My commitment to addressing what we know is a real challenge around how Small Businesses are able to survive and thrive in this city is important to me. Dealing with our empty store fronts, coming up with new solutions, both with changes to our policies but also with financial investments. Even if we cant get rid of certain fees, i do think its important that we continue through the Mayors Office of economic and Workforce Development under the leadership of qua joaquim torez to make sure we are working with Small Businesses to do facade improvements and many others. This is how were going to get there and the board of supervisors who has been incredibly focused. Even before she was on the board of supervisors where she served as a legislative aid for two previous supervisors, i was one of those supervisors, there was no one more committed to supporting Small Businesses and being responsive to the community than your supervisor, district 5 supervisor, val brown. [ applause ]. I just want to thank a few people. I have them written down. I want to first thank the mayor. I want to thank the team at o. E. W. D. , ben, when we were doing this legislation, it was grinding. Just because it was pushed out, came back. Ben would come back and think he had a way to do that. I want to thank my aide in the corner hiding like normal. [ applause ]. He kept saying, we can do it, we can do it. I want to thank the chamber of commerce. They were there all along coming to meetings and speaking in favor. The council of district merchants. And really especially the cole Valley Community. When this came to me i have to say, though, this is kind of a bit of a strange groundhog day for me. When we talked about this, actually planning came to us ten years ago and asked us to clean up a lot of the regulations around these kind of restrictions for businesses, because they said they were archaic, hurting Small Business. You have to remember ten years ago we were in a downturn, the economic downturn. We just didnt have time or the bandwidth to deal with it. When this came back to me ten years in the making, that happened with clean power. I started clean power and finished it in supervisor breeds office. This was ten years in the making again. But this time i said, hey, you know what . This is a heavy lift, but we need to do this for Small Businesses. We need to do this for the person that comes every morning, opens up their door, is here serving coffee, is here cutting your hair, giving you some of the best cheese youve ever had at say cheese. We need to do this for Small Business. Theyre struggling. We, as a city, should be doing everything we can to keep Small Businesses in place and to open Small Businesses. We need to be able to take the regulations away that hurt them, to take the time it takes to open a Small Business. I dont know how you can afford to pay for a space for a year to 18 months before you even have a business. How is that possible . You have to probably save for two years just to open a Small Business. So we have to say no. We have to make sure that we protect Small Businesses. Because, look, i lived in lower haye for 20 years and then i moved into this community. I feel its a mayberry. I walk down the street and know everybody. I can go from one store to another and get what i need for my Everyday Needs and meet the people that i absolutely adore on these streets. So we have to keep these neighborhood corridors vibrant. If we dont have vibrant neighborhood corridors, what does that do . That affects the whole entire community. When the neighbors came to me, cole valley, and said, look, we really support this business. They want a simple beer and wine license so he can have comedy night. How many times does a neighborhood come to you and say we want this business of a beer and wine . Usually its the owner, right . I said, wow, steve, you must have done something right in this neighborhood because they absolutely loved steve and said, steve, we want you to be here and successful. The least i could do was take this legislation and push it through. Now, it took me three times before it went through l. A. N. Use and i had third time is a charm and we got it through. We did it and we all worked together, and it was unanimous at the board. I want to thank everyone who was involved. There was so many people who came out for Public Comment. People behind the scenes saying this is what we need. Steve, you came to those Public Comments. Your staff watched the store while you came. Your cafe. You waited and spoke three times. Im sorry. We shouldnt be doing that to Small Businesses. So really appreciate your time becau because, steve, you helped the whole city. You helped the whole city when the supervisors heard your story and they said, weve got to help this person, this Small Business, you helped the whole city. So youre an activist. [ applause ]. So that point im going to introduce steve wikwire that owns this marvelous cafe and give you a few words. Thank you. [ applause ]. Thank you all for being here. So some of you know i opened this shop after working in San Francisco for ten years. I wanted to bring my passion and dedication for really highend Coffee Service to cole valley, where i thought it was needed. Its been really awesome and amazing being able to contribute to this community. With this legislation passing, well be able to contribute more, namely, staying open later, providing beer and wine service, and doing really fun comedy shows here that i think will just breathe some new life into the neighborhood and add to the mix around here. I really just want to thank our District Supervisor vallie brown and her team for supporting this. [ applause ]. If we do want to see more Small Businesses opening and being run by community members, people who want to serve their communities. It just needs to be a little bit easier to do. We need more pathways for these businesses to grow and adapt as they move forward. So thats really what this is all about. All of your support has made that happen here, so thank you all so much. [ applause ]. Thank you. Up next is rodney fong. Thank you, steve. Congratulations. I feel like its a new day. Its a fresh breath of air. It literally is a chamber of commerce day here in San Francisco. I want to thank mayor breed, supervisor brown for being champions of this legislation. All of the points you bring up about the vitality of San Francisco, how important it is for our streets to be filled with people and to get involved with businesses. At the chamber of commerce weve put an emphasis on Small Businesses. I feel growing up in a Small Business and running our wax museum down at fishermens wharf, creativity is the secret sauce. If we can give entrepreneurs the ability to be cultivators of things, were going to do well. Im happy to be here. I hope we have many, many more opportunities like this. Congratulations to the Planning Department and clearing some of the red tape. Hopefully we can get more businesses open here this San Francisco. Thank you very much for coming, and congratulations to you. [ applause ]. Mayor breed thank you, rodney. Before we sign this legislation, i just want to thank our two Small Business commissioners for being here today. Thank you so much. Steve, who is the president of the commission and sharkie, one of the newest swornin commissioners because of his challenges with his Small Business here in San Francisco. So you really have some champions helping to push forward the kinds of policies that hopefully will make a difference for our Small Business community here in San Francisco. Now, lets get this piece of legislation signed. [ applause ] [ applause ] San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for San Francisco, but for all of the bay area. [sirens] fire station 35 was built in 1915. So it is over 100 years old. And helped it, were going to build fire boat station 35. So the finished Capital Planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on Sea Level Rise. The station 35, Construction Cost is approximately 30 million. And the schedule was complicated because of what you call a float. It is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for installation. Were looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float. The historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. This totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of Sea Level Rise over the next 100 years. Thats what the citys guidance is requiring. It is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises, and sits on four fixed guide piles. So if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. It does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. So that allows for current tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. The fire boat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. The access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. In that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for a slight few inches of lateral motion of the float. Both the access ramps, which there is two, and the utilitys only flexible connection connecting from the float to the back of the building. So electrical power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connection to the boat. High boat station number 35 will provide mooring for three fire boats and one rescue boat. Currently were staffed with Seven Members per day, but the Fire Department would like to establish a new dedicated marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidences. Looking into the future, we have not only at t park, where we have a lot of kayakers, but we have a lot of developments in the southeast side, including the stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incident along these new developments. There are very few designs for people sleeping on the water. Were looking at cruiseships, which are larger structures, several times the size of harbor station 35, but theyre the only good reference point. We look to the cruiseship industry who has kind of an index for how much acceleration they were accommodate. It is very unique. I dont know that any other fire station built on the water is in the united states. The fire boat is a regionalesset tharegional assete used for water rescue, but we also do environmental cleanup. We have special rigging that we carry that will contain oil spills until an environmental unit can come out. This is a job for us, but it is also a way of life and a lifestyle. Were proud to serve our community. And were willing to help people in any way we can. Good afternoon. Welcome to the land, use and Transportation Committee for monday, september 16, 2019. Im the chair of this committee, aaron peskin, joined by vice chair supervisor safai and to my left, supervisor haney. And were joined by supervisors fewer and mandelman. Our clerk is erica major. Any announcements . Yes. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Completed speakers cards to be included as part of the file be given to the clerk. Supervisor peskin could you please read the first item . Item number 1 is ordinance amending the plumbing code to delete the local amendment to the california code referring to the San FranciscoPublic Utilities rules and regulations and Cross Connection control, affirming appropriate findings. Supervisor peskin thank you. Are there any representatives from the department of building inspection or the San FranciscoPublic Utilities commission who want to speak to the fact that we are going to continue this, because apparently, those two organizations have not yet come into agreement on this. Are you coming up on behalf of either one of those organizations, or just no, youre just walking around. Okay. Is there any Public Comment on item number 1 . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And, colleagues, this actually was one portion of the Building Code that came to us wherein there was agreement between two departments. And i was told last week that they had come to agreement, but apparently they have not. So id like to continue this item to the call of the chair. Is there a motion to do so . Made by supervisor safai and well take that without objection. Item continued to the call of the chair. Please read the next item . Item number 2 is hearing on state of the Restaurant Industry, including but not limited to strategies city departments are utilizing to support Restaurant Operators through the permitting and inspection process. Supervisor peskin thank you. I would like to associate myself with it. Insofar as the culture of convenience, the culture of expensive rents and many other things, some of them imposed by an array of fees and Public Policy positions that this supervisor and this government have voted on have had, i think, a deleterious collective impact on the Restaurant Industry. I want to thank supervisor fewer for calling the hearing and turn it over to her. Supervisor fewer thank you for allowing me to hold the hearing today on the state of the Restaurant Industry. Restaurants are a vital part of the backbone of neighborhoods. In my conversations, many have shared what they love about doing businessed in neighborhood, but also have talked about the challenges of opening food establishments on our corridors. Many of our departments have implemented a number of strategies to streamline and improve their support of our Small Businesses, but we know there is still work to be done. The goal of todays hearing is to look at how departments are improving their systems, and also to look at how departments can Work Together to provide clarity in the overall process to provide a road map. Im hoping today we can take a wholistic look at the climate of the Restaurant Industry in the San Francisco and zone in on the permitting processes. Restaurants and the variety of a restaurants and different cuisines help to make us a worldclass city. And a Culinary Destination for people all over the world, but this industry is suffering now. And these challenges actually threaten their very existence. It is the hope of the hearing that we can examine how we as a city and county of San Francisco legislators can support this industry. Today well be hearing from the golden gate restaurant oh, the workforce develop, the department of Public Health, Planning Department and tax collector. Anybody else with comments . I see supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman thank you. I wanted to just thank supervisor fewer for calling for this hearing. In my district, there has been a very steady and troubling drum beat of restaurant closures. And vacant store front, especially in the upper market castro area that i am very concerned about. And then we have also heard troubling stories from a number of folks trying to open new restaurants, about how hard it is to get through the various processes and permitting requirements. We made a mozest change to eliminate the modest change to eliminate the requirements, but there is a lot more the city can do to facilitate entrepreneurs to get a business established. Im interesting in hearing more from departments and folks in the industry about what is going on out there. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Lets start with the hearing. Id like to call up lori thomas, the policy chair of the golden gate restaurant association. Thank you. First of all, i wanted to good afternoon and thank you, all, for taking the time. Many have you have known me over the years. Ive been in the industry for a long time. What id like to do is speak on behalf and give an expert summary overview of the golden gate restaurant association. I still own and manage two restaurants in San Francisco. And we really appreciate your time. I know there is a lot of people who wanted to be here today, but have to run their restaurant, so were going to give them feedback. Im going to read the overview here. So what we wanted to do today was address concerns were having with hard issues our industry is facing. Were going to start with facts to bring everybody to the same page. This is taking the number of sales tax permits in 2018 and from the bureau of labor statistics, we have 2500 eating establishments and generating 4. 7 million in taxable sales to the city. Our industry provides approximately 65,000 working class jobs in San Francisco alone. And we represent 52 of the citys entire retail sector. We help keep neighborhood corridors vibrant. We bring business to the retail shops, many of whom are struggling in the online economy and help provide tourists with San Franciscos unique experiences. But were seeing a troubling trend. Up until about two years ago the number of restaurants opening and closing was approximately equal, but based on numbers from ye yelp, weve seen the closings outnumber the openings by 9 . This is causing a lot of worry and were not even seeing what were going to count in 2019. 2020, we expect an even greater number of closings, due to many factors were going to cover, that cover housing, permitting, economic pressures and vacant store fronts. Were going to provide proposed solutions and hope we can go further from here. Lets start with the shortage of affordable housing. We all know this. Its directly impacting our employees. With median rents for a onebedroom in San Francisco around 3600 per months and limited availability of anything that costs less, housing in the bay area is way short of our needs. Even ownership in the city is out of reach for the Leadership Teams which causes them to think about moving out of state. Those facing the greatest challenge are in the sweet spot of the earnings, 5070,000 a year. These are managers, chefs. Theyre the most disadvantaged. Were wondering what can we do . We may look at money allocated to Small Businesses, maybe there is a voucher system or something that could help to offset the rent issues. Maybe we can i know this is a tough one but expand transit hours so our employees can make it back and forth from the east and north bays and know they dont have to pay for uber or lyft to get home after everything is closed. Permitting. I know a lot of members will give examples theyve been experiencing. This can vary a lot, but if your a restaurant, it could take up to 12 months. It can be costly with the additional hearings. The rent you have to pay if you didnt negotiate it with your new owner. And also, too, you could risk being denied, which is troubling. The Building Permit progress, i know were trying to make progress, but its still confusing. And everybody that has done it successfully has been using an expediter, with i significantly increases which significantly increases the cost of opening a business. Is there a likely way that success could be delineated. Is there a way to streamline . Is there a way to overlap approval . I know there is a lot of progress, but were giving an overview. So a lot of the restaurants are on the ground floor of buildings. And so were the eyes and ears of what is happening on the streets. We hear from restaurant members of the daily challenges they face with both the cleanliness and the safety, whether its the wellbeing of the patrons or the staff leaving at the end of their shift, restaurants continue to see a rise and lack of safety surrounding their businesses. Neighborhoods with the most challenge, we know theyre the most densely populated from locals and visitors, downtown, market street, the had mission, but were also hearing from sunset and problems theyre starting to see in neighborhoods as well. Additionally, unfortunately, this summer a lot of us have seen a business slowdown, particularly in the month of july, from leisure travel. And restaurants are seeing reduced foot traffic due to conditions on the streets. And members are feeling like its not Getting Better and they shouldnt bother reporting these issues as often no issue is taken. Where is the accountability to address our Mental Health and Substance Abuse issues . This comes from an industry where were intimately aware of these issues. Solutions. So lets Work Together to clean up your streets. Ask the restaurants to participate and brainstorm what we can do and design programs that improve the Emotional Wellbeing of these communities. Now were going to get to my favorite subject. Economic pressure. So i pulled numbers, because i feel thats the right thing to do. I first want to say there has been a lot of great policy i believe in and i know a lot of our members believe in. Im just going to quote some of the statistics, because, unfortunately, some of the policies now have been in place to the point theyre breaking the business models. Wages. Since 2012, the wages have gone up 52 due to the minimum wage and the Ripple Effect on the payroll. This is a huge number for the industry, if you look at the national statistics, only keeps 35 cents on the dollar. So we can go through numbers later, but this has a huge effect. Health care. The spending requirements have caused the business costs, the spend to go up 37 in just since 2012. And combined, these two costs are making it much harder to stay in the red, particularly if you have a large amount of employees like i did at rose for example. So taxes and permit fees. We know we try to fix the gross receipts and payroll tax a couple of years ago and it didnt turn out. I know there is more reform planned. These taxes for smaller restaurants add up to thousands of dollars a year. Its a huge amount of money, you guys. And additionally, there is yearly increases in permitting fees. I wont tell you the cost of the table and chairs permits on union street, it will blow your mind. The other thing, too, i want to mention and youve heard this before from me, we need utilities, but theyre monopolies and theyre going to assign whatever rate increases they want. Pg e, water. We have no say and no way to combat. All these costs put together are breaking the business models. Fast casual and smaller bars and restaurants with little employees on their payroll are going to make it and theyre still continuing to grow, but fullservice restaurants, in particular ones with larger number of employees on the payroll are seeing unsustainable costing. What are solutions . I hate to say this, but im going to, i think we should take a look again at the hcso and see if there is way to modify and adjust this ordinance to make the policy work, but make it for affordable for the Restaurant Business and look at what resources do we have that work that gavin is doing, with kaiser holding their rates and things like that. We would offer to participate, and i would really like, the gross receipts and payroll tax reform. You can have as many representatives from our industry. If there is different ways to do it, i would like it not tied to the payroll. Vacant store fronts. This is a huge, huge thing and were all seeing in the neighborhoods. Were painfully ware of increased rents and vacant store fronts and inflexible landlords. And increasing rents make these vacancies more and more likely. On king street in the press today, two are closing. Tony is closing one of his slice shops. Not only are existing restaurants looking not to renew leases, but new businesses are going to have to come up with huge cash or be large chains to make this work. What is the solution here . I dont know, maybe there is a couple here. One im thinking, is is there a way to incent the landlords to lease spaces . Or a way to give tax breaks to restaurants to help them locate in areas where were seeing the highest vacancy rates. There was an enterprise tax zone in california, that doesnt exist anymore. Is there a way to do that . That helps when you have concrete numbers to put on the table. In closing, we want to ask that you consider restaurants cannot just raise their prices to offset the costs. Customers will either stop dining out, order less and god forbid we see an economic down turn from international or national issues, were going to see more close. Were concerned about the viability of our industry and were willing to be at the table. Thank you so much for your time. Supervisor peskin thank you, ms. Thomas. Before i hand it back over to supervisor fewer, i think as your presentation elucidated, this is an intertwined very complicated web. I think in order for im going to say this to the departments for this hearing to be successful and while all 11 of us and the mayor focus on homelessness and larger societal problems, i think weve got to boil this down to things that we can do. So, for instance, i agree with you that as a matter of fact the board has taken steps in other policy areas to deal with the issue of fees, which are paramount in particularly when youre starting a restaurant when there are over 20 fees. Some of them, you dont have to avail yourselves of if you dont want the entertainment permit, if you dont want sidewalk table and chairs permit, you dont have to get it, but you have to get a dbi permit for the place. You may or may not if youre moving into a previous restaurant space, depending on the zone, have to get a cu. Mr. Star will speak to the fact there are provisions for expedited cancel uses and they conditional uses and there is the department of Public Health as to food handling, which is an ongoing fee. That is something that this board can focus on beyond issues i mean, yes, it is true that San Francisco is at the forefront of health care and minimum wage, but we have been surplanted now by state and even to a limited extent federal behavior. And were seeing that throughout many, many states. I would like in order for this to be productive, because i totally agree we want this industry, at a minimum, survive and at a maximum thrive, as was the case of many years. Which is still an empty space that is causing me grief in the middle of north beach. Sorry about that. Supervisor peskin it is what it is. Youre not the only one. Supervisor haney reminded me that when the giants lose, less people come to south park. For sure. Supervisor peskin i would like to leave the hearing im not saying this to you, but to the other speakers and supervisors and my colleagues on this panel, with ideas of concrete, real things that we can do in the shortterm. That was not to you, that was just kind of to make this a productive. I want to add thank you, one thing, i know there are things that arent directly to this hearing and i hear you, and we all understand that, but if there subsequent meetings and other commissions or areas we could participate, i would be very willing to do that, as would my colleagues. Supervisor peskin and to that end, there is an evolving discussion between the board and the Mayors Office and the Controllers Office. We know that 2020 is the year where a long thought about adjustment to the payroll gross receipts tax that has been plaguing us since the infamous lawsuit brought by General Motors and 51 other multinational corporations has been bugging us for 20 years. Were trying to figure that out. You should all be a part of the conversation. Thank you for that. Supervisor peskin supervisor fewer, thank you. Supervisor safai ill be bri brief. Some of the things that we worked on in the past year have been about reducing buffer zones for permitting and some of the things weve worked on is expanding the use of commissary kitchens and restaurants. That hasnt panneded to full expanded to fullservice restaurants. The idea of second floor, i know in many cases zoning doesnt allow for a secondfloor space to be utilized as a kitchen. Those are the things we hear a lot from Small Businesses and restaurants that can be helpful. So any of the ideas, at least as it pertains to this body. We are the land use committee. I wanted to add that. Supervisor peskin and thank you for leading obviously you see an engaged panel, but before i turn it over to supervisor fewer, as a high level you have changing Consumer Behavior through what we love to call the amazon effect. And then you also have a situation where individuals who do not own or control their buildings or have longterm leases are facing massive rent. I read the article about brown where their rent went to 14,000 a month. That is crushing. There are policy things we have been talking about relative to those. And its not every property owner, but those Property Owners who hold out for egregiously high rent and chase their places out. They remain vacant, which is a nuisance and blight to all of us. So there are things we can do, like a vacancy tax, where landlords who do not reduce their rents are going to be incentivized to do so. With that, supervisor fewer. Supervisor fewer thank you for the opening overview of the challenges of the Restaurant Industry. I want to concur with the colleagues, some of the problems are bigger issues than others. But im looking and i think there are some things and ideas we can come together as city departments to help you actually and bring relief. Having said that, i would like to bring up katie skipper . The Program Manager of open sf. Shes going to give us an overview also of what open sf is helping with. Thank you, supervisors. Good afternoon. Im with the office of economic and Workforce Development. Thank you for the time to speak with you today about the Restaurant Industry and oewds strategy to support restaurants. We have a number of programs that support the restaurants. They strengthen commercial corridors and provides support directly to Small Businesses, including Financial Support and technical assistance. We have Employer Services that connect job seekers to job opportunities. Our Hospitality Services help train residents to enter the workforce in culinary food services, facility and building maintenance. Our night life Sector Development works strengthens the Restaurant Industry, working to connect businesses with city resources and advance policy initiatives to support the sector. And today, given the specific request regarding permitting, im going to focus on the open in sf that assists the permitting process. I wanted to give background about the program so you know where it came from. This program was in response to analysis the Controllers Office did back in 2015, that mapped the permitting process. One of the recommendations that came out of the report was that restaurants could really benefit from having one primary point of contact, someone to own their experience and work with them across all permits and agencies. So we moved forward to create the Program Based on that recommendation. It began with high level of research, including collaborating with our interdepartmental partners, business holders and stakeholders to make sure we understood the process and the challenges and could position the program to provide the assistance needed. So we determined the number of the objectives for the program. The first is to provide a primary point of contact with improve the experience. Thats really the heart of the program. So client manager works with a restaurant across the entirety of the permitting process through all permits across all departments. Another really key objective was to have a wholistic and proactive perspective. As was mentioned, it is knowing what to expect up front, being able to negotiate time lines into our lease. Those help Restaurant Owners have the tools to optimize the process. The program relies on a really high level of interdepartmental collaboration, so we can identify the needs of each individual business and support them through the process. And it also ill speak to this later, provides rich information as we go through the process over and over again to help us identify opportunities to improve the process. So since the launch of the program, at the end of 2016, 269 businesses have received assistance. This includes new restaurants as well as restaurants seeking to expand or add a license or per met to strengthen their permit to strengthen their business. Businesses across the city have received support, and businesses are finding the program directly from supervisors offices, from Partner Agencies such as planning, building and health, from oewd programs, office of Small Business, and merchant organizations and through word of mouth from prior businesses who have been clients of the program. As i mentioned, this work provides us a really good window into what some of the challenges are, what the points are that the businesses are facing over and over as they go through the process. It helps this program work as a feedback loop where we can identify some of these challenges and work to smooth them. So a couple of successes in that work recently have been at the beginning of this year, oewd worked with dbi on administrative reforms that expanded the number of businesses who can receive their Building Permits over the counter. That is a huge savings for those businesses in time. Additionally, recently, a Small Business